By Aaron Schulze

Substance Use Treatment

Substance use treatment: Kamloops receives one of Interior Health’s five Integrated Treatment Teams

Mar 13, 2021 | 3:00 PM

Five Integrated Treatment Teams (ITT) have been set up in Interior Health (IH) for people seeking substance use treatment.

The ITT’s are set up in Kamloops, Cranbrook, Enderby/Salmon Arm, Penticton, and West Kelowna.

IH trained members of the ITT’s over the winter and now they’re ready to see clients.

“Everyone’s experience of addiction is unique, and their path to wellness is unique as well,” Interior Health President and CEO Susan Brown said. “At the foundation of Integrated Treatment Teams is the ability to meet people’s individual needs on their schedule, and to work with them towards their own personalized treatment goals.”

ITT’s model is set to be as flexible as possible for people who haven’t been able to attend traditional inpatient of outpatient treatment programs, such as arriving at a walk-in clinic. Whether it’s due to child-care demands, lack of transportation, work schedules, among others.

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Sheila Malcolmson, Minister of Mental Health and Addictions, said there are many barriers to the services people who are struggling with substance use may need. She said the coronavirus pandemic has caused the B.C. Government to expand into more online, phone, and virtual services.

“We’re really informed by some of the very successful clinics in all different parts of the province that really have broadened their offer to people,” Malcolmson said. “In some cases, maybe they started from an addiction treatment. But then they realized people had so many underlying health problems already that were undermining their health and making them more vulnerable to the impacts of addiction.

“If people had been made to feel unwelcome in a traditional doctor’s office, then they have not been able to access the primary healthcare they need, let alone the addiction and mental health supports.”

Another area ITT’s intend to address is the stigma some people may feel while trying to reach out.

“People feeling like an addiction problem is something that maybe they can’t talk with their regular doctor about – maybe they don’t have a doctor – but sometimes there is shame associated with this,” Malcolmson said. “If you have an addiction challenge, whether it’s opioids or alcohol, this is a medical problem. It’s not a criminal problem. You shouldn’t be embarrassed about asking for help.”

Anyone who’d like more information about ITT’s and other mental health and substance use services can visit IH’s website.

With files from Dylana Kneeshaw